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9/15/2009 So much has happened in the last couple of
months, it will take some time to update everything. First I will
touch on the main points. We sold our house in 
North
Carolina, we have bought and moved into a house in Tucson Arizona.
Boxes, boxes, boxes. Working on getting everything organized,
especially the recording room as we have some things to record. More
on that later. We have a new book for Mandolin and Guitar "Christmas
Duets for Mandolin & Guitar." This book is notation
only for both instruments, and has 15 Great duets with introductions
and variations. We also have a Book of folksongs for Guitar which
will be out very soon because it's at the printer as I type this. I
spoke with ADG and they said it would be a couple of weeks perhaps,
so you can be looking for that soon on our site. We also have a new
Cello & Guitar book, which is Duets
for Cello & Guitar Vol III with
some terrific pieces in it.
I don't think I could have done the move with out
Aleksandra's organizational skills. She is truly amazing when it
comes to packing and organizing everything. And thank you Sharla for
coming from AZ to help us. Because of financial considerations, we
decided to drive a Penske truck, towing our car on a trailer. It
wasn't too bad and the route had very few turns. I think it was 85 to
Interstate 20 and stay on 20 until somewhere either in TX or just
after, where you pick up Interstate 10. The only really busy part
(stop and go) was bypassing Atlanta, that was quite a drag. But
because we left on Friday morning, there was almost no roadwork and
the traffic wasn't too bad. Because we gained three hours going west,
we managed to get to Tucson in three days. The only exciting times
were looking for fuel for the truck especially in Texas where the
stops had many miles between them. The low point was Midland Texas,
which has to be one of the ugliest places we drove through. Perhaps
the city is nice, but along the highway, it's abandoned oil wells,
trucks, cars, houses, RVs and anything you could possible think of.
El Paso on the other hand was an attractive city. Tucson is beautiful
and we have a view of the Catalina
Mountains here.
Selling the house and buying this one was very very
stressful. Something should be done to make this easier on buyers and
sellers. For example, in NY or MD, at the closing when you give them
the money, you get the key to the house. In AZ and NC, you pay your
money and then you have to wait until the house is recorded to get
the key, to insure your property or do anything, so if the closing is
on Friday, and they don't get around to recording the house (which
happens often) you just have to wait through the weekend and if you
have plans to move, it's just too bad. The seller also doesn't get
paid until the house records, and it can also be a day after that.
How can one do business this way. We didn't get into this house until
the next day sometime, and we didn't even know if it would be then.
We had all our things in a truck and we were just waiting around. We
didn't get paid for the house we sold for four days after the sale,
and that is no reflection on the buyers who are great people. It was
the bank and the lawyers.
Oh, Aleksandra has been making these handmade Medieval/Renaissance
Purses which are perfect for so many
things. They are perfect for picks, strings, gold coins, precious
jewels or magic stones. Take a peek at them. The pictures speak for
themselves, they are beautiful. Aleksandra will also be teaching
mandolin here in AZ so she will be busy.
I know there is a lot on the media these days about
health insurance, and I do agree that it's very expensive. We had
Blue Cross in NC which covered the accident that Aleksandra had when
the car hit her and shattered her femur. She was three weeks in the
hospital and I'm glad we had the insurance. Now that we moved to AZ,
we have to re-apply for insurance from... tada.... Blue Cross of AZ
which is different than Blue Cross of NC. To get the insurance
Aleksandra had to sign a waiver which said they Blue Cross of AZ will
not cover anything having to do with failure of the operation on her
leg or anything related to this accident which should happen for
LIFE!!! Not for one or two years, any associated problems/visits
having to do with this accident are excluded forever. Anyone who
thinks the insurance companies are doing a great job, I'm curious
what you think about this. I couldn't believe it.
Tucson is beautiful. There are many independent
stores, great restaurants and it is one of Five Gold Rated city for
bicycles in the US. There are bike lanes on just about every busy
road, and parallel to the busy roads are other roads which are very
lightly travelled. Most of the roads to North/South and East/West so
it's easy to find your way around the city. After three years in
Durham, NC I still had to ask Aleks where to go, but here I'm having
no trouble. We are about a mile from just about anything you could
want, but it's still a very quiet neighborhood we live in. Every time
I go out I'm amazed by the mountains. This is the nicest placed I
have ever lived, and I love the heat. People here complain when it's
110 degrees F outside, but I will take that any day compared to 20
degrees F. I find at dusk I can run easily even when it's 90 degrees
F, and there are some great paved bike trails here. It's a terrific
place to live.
7/02/09 "The Magic Lute"
a new edition for lute in French Tablature is available for
Renaissance Lute. You can have it either as a Book/CD or as just a
CD. Music of Turlough Carolan, music from the Skene Manuscript, and
many others. On the page for the book we have a link to some SoundClick
Files. There is also a new edition for guitar coming out which is not
available until ADG Productions has it ready. I sent them everything
they need to complete it, and I think it should be ready in a couple
of months. I will have information up on the site as soon as I have
it. There are some great tunes in this Book/CD including Amazing
Grace, Scarborough Faire, Black is the Color of my True Love's Hair,
Three Ravens, Greensleeves, Inca Melodies and some great pieces you
may not be familiar with. The title of the book is "Folksongs
for Guitar from Near and Far." It will have both Notation and
Tablature for guitar in a second section to avoid page turns.
Otherwise we are just doing the sell the house/buy the house dance
and are hoping that we can get this done fairly soon. I can't wait
until I can again just sit and play and write music and not worry
about the freaking house.
It seems to me there is a lot of intelligence out
there, but not a lot of wisdom. I called to change a doctor's
appointment for someone, and they wanted to know everything including
the social security numbers of the family. I said to them "I
just want to change the time of an appointment." There are
things that make me crazy. The "self serve checkout" at the
grocery store and very few lines with checkout people. Hardware
stores where there is no one to help you (I prefer the small local
places) and I went looking for running shoes the other day (you will
know that I don't shop much) and I was speechless to find that there
was no one to help you. You had to find the shoes and the right size
yourself. I'm sure there are many other things that make me crazy but
I can't think of them right now. More later.
Oh, we have a little booklet that I haven't listed yet
titled "Secrets About Music." Some of the secrets are on
the web page, but these are things that have helped me keep playing
and have fun over the years, and they are really a new way of looking
at things. I believe you will have some "ah ha" moments
when you read it. You can sample the secrets
on the page. The booklet is 28 pages and I'm thinking of selling it
for $5.95 and that inludes postage.
5/26/09 It's here. "Ancient
Airs of the Scottish Renaissance for Mandolin" We now have
this terrific book available. The pieces are from the Skene
Manuscript. The Titles are really wonderful. "Flowres of the
Forrest," "Kilt Thy Coat Maggie," "My Mistress
Blush is Bonnie" and "To Dance About the Balkeis Dubb"
just to name a few. I mean, where else will you get titles like this.
I love this about Renaissance pieces, and these tunes are certainly
from the Renaissance. But they do have a different feel than much of
the Renaissance music you hear. There is a certain type of sound to
these pieces which you will not find anywhere. I"m also getting
close to finishing up a book titles "Folksongs for Guitar from
Near and Far." There are going to be a number of easily
recognizeable pieces, but also some of these wonderful pieces from
the Skene Manuscript. It's such a wonderful source of great music.
Ancient Music from the Skene Manuscript. Hear some Pieces on SoundClick
5/14/09 OK, so I don't write every day. We are busy
recording a new project for mandolin, and I'm working hard on one for
guitar. The mandolin Book/CD will be done first. We have 15 of the 23
pieces already recorded, so this will be soon. The title is
"Ancient Airs of the Scottish Renaissance for Mandolin" and
we are drawing most of the material from the Skene Manuscript. This
project is Awesome. The tunes are different and really lovely. The
guitar Book/CD I'm working on is "Folksongs for Guitar from Near
and Far. There are quite a few which are familiar as well as some you
won't know. The familiar ones are "Black is the Color,"
"Simple Gifts," "Three Ravens," "Barbara
Allen," "Amazing Grace," and "Shady Grove."
Other than that there is a great Macedonian song, a Greek, and
several Scottish tunes which are really enchatning. Other than that,
still trying to sell the house and move to Arizona. I have a feeling
the gas prices will peak when it's time to move, as that is what
happened every time so far. Weather here is warm (in the 80s) but not
warm enough for us. When we first moved to NC I found some of the
days a touch warm for me, but not anymore. I ran the other day and
when I got back, it was 86. I thought that was just fine with me. So
maybe I will have to get used to warmer weather in Arizona, but if
that is the case, it's fine with me. Warm is good. If you have a
house in Tucson you would like to trade for one in Durham, NC just
let us know. We should have the Mandolin Book and a video and sampel
tunes up soon, the guitar book will be a little longer, and then we
will have to look for a new project to do. :-)
We had a great week here, it was 80 degrees in March
for almost a week. I just love the warm weather. Over Christmas,
Aleksandra went to visit her Mom in Phoenix and took the opportunity
to dress in 
some
traditional Montenagren garb. Here you see a pic of her with her
fathers gusla, a traditional instrument of Montenegro. We have had a
lot of fun with the Balkan music, and now there are a couple of Youtube
Videos up for you to watch if you like. We
have a few friends who enjoy travel, and we have used many of their
photos to provide a small preview of the area. I have been very busy
with making new editions, and in the last few months have completed a
number of them and I have listed them below. All of these were pretty
interesting and rewarding. The latest of the group is the Bach
Partitas. These have always been a challange for me, but with time
and careful fingerings, I think I have a set of pieces which are
pretty playable. The Balkan things are of course fantastic. I just
love this music. I wish there were more great pieces in 7/8 times.
-
JS Bach Partita BWV 997
Book/CD 3/11/09 
- A Bouquet of Walzes for Guitar
Book/CD 12/30/08
- Eight Concert Rags for Guitar
BookCD Joplin 12/17/08
- Balkan Music for Guitar
Book/CD 6/14/08
- Balkan Music for Mandolin
Book/CD 11/1/2008
There is a small book I'm working on titled "The
Book of Music Secrets." Some of these are on the www page and
they reflect many of the dilemmas and confusions about music. Some of
them are very very basic and for me they have been a revolution and
are part of the reason that I'm doing what I'm doing, how I'm doing
it and still doing it. I think it really clarifies the goals and ways
to get there for musicians. We will be offering it up for sale soon
at a low price. It is really full of gems for anyone learning or
continuing to play an instrument. If you have an interest in getting
it sooner than it's on the page, just drop me a note at guitarandlute@earthlink.net.
I am again looking forward to the warmth. Since we have moved to NC I
have no memory of complaining about the heat, but I still whine about
the cold. If I was still in NY I would be looking at the weather
reports here and thinking "Wow, going up to 60 today."
Well, it's not warm enough. As far as I'm concerned, anything below
75 is winter. We are hoping to move to Arizona this year, and not the
north of Arizona. Someplace where it's warm.
We have been pretty busy though. We have Two New books for Guitar and
One for Mandolin. The Mandolin book is pretty exciting. The title is Balkan
Music for Mandolin and if you use that link, you will also find
a link to soundclick to hear many of the pieces. This is such great
music, and also an opportunity to be playing in 7/8 for a number of
the pieces. Hopefully we have a video up fairly soon of one of the pieces.
When I was in my twenties I was really taken with the piano rags of
Scott Joplin. These were some of my first arrangements, and I did try
to get them published with no success. I spent a lot of time
arranging them and learning them, but to no avail. Eventually I
became consumed with other types of music, but of course I have
always had those arrangements. Recently, someone wrote to me about
the Rags as they were available as sheet music, and I decided to go
over them again, revise them and then my publisher ADG thought that
there was a market for these pieces, so they have published them in a
beautiful Book/CD edition titled "Eight
Concert Rags for Guitar." It's now available on the site
and through your local music store. I also went back and played and
revised a number of Waltzes that I had written and arranged, and put
them together in an edition titled "A
Bouquet of Walzes for Guitar." If you visit the links, you
will also find a link to the pieces on Soundclick where you can
listen to the Music. In the Waltz book, "The Raven" and
"Maria Sol" are two of my favorites which I was really
looking forward to having in an edition, and you will also find a
beautiful little known Waltz by Frederic Chopin, "Waltz in A
Minor" which was only published after his death. It sits very
nicely on the guitar and is probably my favorite Chopin Waltz.
I have to say that I have been really tardy with this Blog. So much
has happened since I was last here updating it. For one we have a new
mandolin book "Mandolin Music for Renaissance Faires." It's
a terrific collection of early music for mandolin and I think you
will enjoy it. You can hear soundclips up on Soundclick and you can
reach the link from the book page "Mandolin
Music for Renaissance Faires." And in Addition, there is a
new Guitar Book available titled "The
Balkan Book for Guitar." This is really a rocking book.
There are five pieces in 7/8 time and they are killer pieces. There
is a link to soundclick from the page above and you can hear many of
the tunes. There is not a bad piece in the book. I wish I had this
when I was younger. I would have worn it out. I'm so excited about
this collection, and we will have one soon for the mandolin. This is
really really great music.
House is on the market and when it sells, we will find one in Tucson
an move. I have found since moving here that I really like the heat.
90 is just warm for me, but of course it's a bit warm to run. So far
80 is about my limit. I just can't stand the cold and I love the
heat. We do have a window AC here, but I don't use it a lot unless
it's 100. I don't mind being outside in the heat, but inside working
I take advantage of the AC.
Check out our new video of Cantiga 119 for Mandolin at YouTube
Every once in a while we run into an instrument we really think is
very worthwhile, and we list it here on our site. This is a really
fine Cordoba Classical guitar that I think
is a very very good, a worthwhile instrument for someone who is
looking for a guitar with good looks and a great sound.
We have a new book available for guitarists. titled "The
Spanish Collection." This is a terrific new colleciton with
pieces the majority of which have never been published. The pieces
are intermediate and should be playable by most guitarists. From the
beautiful "Berceuse" by Isaac Albeniz, the haunting A
"Virgen Mui Groriosa" by Alfonso X el Sabio to the lovely
"Danza de Las Tabiernas" this is a collection you won't
want to miss. Other than that, it's a bit chillly outside and sort of
hard to run in the mid 50s. The weather is going to warm up here, so
I hope to get to run perhaps tomorrow. I don't quite know what to do,
any warmer than here and it's going to be really really hot in the
summer. Aleksandra is doing better with the injury, but it's a very
slow heal and she becomes exhausted easily. I wish she could do more,
it's tough to watch her when it hurts and she is exhausted
We are working on some Mandolin books now. I really like the
combination. We are also thinking of doing a book for mandolin and
guitar with the guitar parts being a bit more complicated and also
having the guitar parts written out. Our experience is that it won't
ever sell as well as the books for Mandolin with chords, but even so,
I think it's something we just want to do.
Aleksandra did manage to make dinner tonight. It was a reproduction
of a great meal we had at an Italian restaurant near here. Broccoli,
Calamata Olives and Pasta with Olive Oil. Yum yum.
Think of this as encouragement. If you don't know how to read
tablature, either guitar tablature (also known as Spanish Tablature
for lute) or lute tablature, why don't you learn how to do it. There
are a few types of tablature for the lute. They are Italian, Spanish,
the unintelligible German and the most popular French. French is
similar to guitar tablature except they use letters instead of
numbers. So learn how to read it, it will open you up to a world of
music, and if you know how to read tablature but do now know how to
read music notation, then learn how to do it. It all fascinates me
which is why I can read all of them, except the unintelligible German
of course. It's like doing a crossword, or playing some sort of game.
It's more fun than watching TV and keeps your mind active. In
addition, there will be many pieces of music you can play that you
can't play now. Often when we do a book, we will include tablature
for the guitar. The lute books of course are just in French
tablature. But on the other hand, it seems to be a waste of paper if
someone doesn't want the tablature, and makes the books more
expensive to produce. Music is the best game in the world. I started
playing it seriously when I was twenty years old, and have never
tired of it. What opens the doors for a player would be learning to
read both the several types of tablatures and also, learning to read
notation. What is interesting is that people that know how to read
tablature, tell me they can't learn how to read notation, and people
that read notation tell me they can't learn how to read tablature as
it's too confusing. Interesting, we are attracted to what we know,
when really the way to grow is to be attracted to what we don't know.
This is how you can really get inside someone's head (the composer)
and it will change you. You will more than likely learn something and
at the same time, it will transform you a little bit. Sometimes it
can be a little alien to play a piece. Alien in the way that you
don't understand it, the tune just doesn't make sense. I remember
playing this fantasia for week, and during the week, slowly one part,
and then another part made sense, and by the end of the week, the
entire tune not only made sense, I loved it. So what happened was
that I changed. I think Ray Bradbury had a story about this. A person
crashed on Mars, and there was a deserted city. The city tried to
take care of him, but the food was horrible, there was a screeching
in the background, and he could not breathe the air. He lost
consciousness. When he woke up, the food was delicious, there was
beautiful music playing in the background, and the air fresh and good
to breathe. What happened was the city operated on him and changed
him. That is what happens when you learn, you change a little bit at
each time you learn.
OK, I have talked about The Essential
Greensleeves for Guitar and also Mostly
Medieval Music for Guitar and one of my favorites,
"Mandolin Music for Medieval Faires. Now, I'm going to speak
about listening to them. A few examples of music from these
collections is on Soundclick,
the problem is of course that these are MP3 files that you hear.
There are different qualities of MP3 files of course, but even a high
quality MP3 file has only about on tenth of the information in it
that a wav file has. And a wav file is what most record companies use
make the master, from which they make CDs. What you are missing in an
MP3 file are a ton of overtones. A lack of overtones with adversely
affect the quality of the sound that you are hearing. When I was
young there were many audiophiles. I remember looking in catalogues
of amplifiers and receivers by Fisher, Scott and Marantz. I drooled
over them and they were obviously out of my price range as a
teenager. I loved fidelity. Eventually I bought a system with
speakers and an used Scott amplifier, and had that for quite a while.
I also had an AR turntable and speakers. Now people are listening to
music on MP3 players, and I know that high quality acoustic music
with many overtones really suffers. A recording can never replace the
sound of a live instrument, but an MP3 is really a degration and with
something like a guitar or lute, there is a real difference on a good
system between an MP3 and a CD made from WAV files. I really find it
hard to believe people are buying MP3 files because they are really
not a very good replacement for a CD. Convenient yes, qualtiy... Not
for me. Which is also why we don't care to ever sell them.
Our new book The Essential Greensleeves
for Guitar is now available. Every possible version of
Greensleeves that I can find including Greensleeves by Mr Beck,
Greensleeves Pudding & Pie (also known as Greensleeves &
Yellow Lace), Greensleeves for Voice and Guitar sung by Kumara Ray
and arranged by moi, a Modern Greensleeves, Greensleeves on a Ground
(a duet for two lutes arranged for guitar), eleven in all. Also I
have included a facsimile of a lute version of the piece and play
that with both the guitar and the lute on the accompanying CD. I'm
always amazed at the cover art Aleksandra comes up with, and the
cover for "The Essential Greensleeves" is really especially
nice, even for Aleksandra.
I also can't believe that I'm starting to look forward to my runs. I
did 3 miles a day for 6 days, and then had to take a couple of days
off to recover. But it's getting better and I'm getting stronger,
only been 5 months or so. I think after a year it will be good if I
don't get interrupted too much in the winter. Hope anyone reading
this is well. - Allan
Ok, so here is another entry into the BLOG and another book. Now we
have a new guitar book titled "Mostly Medieval Music for
Guitar." I say "Mostly" becuase there are a few
Renaissance pieces in the book, but they are all great pieces and
almost all have never been published for guitar. You can hear some
samples at Soundclick.
There are 28 great pieces, almost 50 minutes of music, and the cover
the Aleksandra drew a really terrific picture for the cover, and I
looked at it and thought, "This is Magic." I can't quite
put it in words, but you can take a look at it Here.
Let me know if any magic passes your way or if it gives you a
similar feeling. I think it's a killer cover, and the music is great.
I would write more, but I'm tired and I'm going to bed to read a
mystery. I found a good new author, at least to me, his name is
"Ed Dee" and he is pretty good.
So we released a new book, "Mandolin Music for Medieval
Faires," and it's really a terrific book. There are many
syncopated pieces and we have been listening to the CD for days. You
can hear some of the tunes on Soundclick.
Cantiga 119 is a killer piece. So far the Book/CD has had a great
response. We also sell just the CD. It's about 48 minutes and has a
lot of great music on it. Aleksandra did a great job on the CD. Aleks
is getting better from the accident. It's a slow heal though, man oh
man, how one instant can change your life. So now we are working on
Balkan music for Mandolin, a book of music of Renaissance Faires and
a book of Medieval Music for Guitar. Busy busy busy. I have been
running about 2.5 miles a day. It's going well, except it's been
pretty warm lately, up to 102 during the day and very humid, so some
mornings I just can't bring myself to do it. I know it's warm, but
it's better than freezing which makes me insane. So all in all, life
is good. Maybe when it gets a little cooler I will be able to
increase my run a bit. I heard it takes 2 years to build up running
so you are in shape. It was much harder in the beginning than it is
now, maybe it will keep getting easier.
I haven't been to a movie for probably 30 years, I just don't find
that sort of entertainment interesting. But for the first time in a
very very long time, a movie intereted me. So I decided to go see
sicko with my wife Aleksandra. So let me say this, GO SEE THIS MOVIE!
Everyone should see this. It's the one movie you should see this
year. Find out what is really going on with healthcare, find out how
Americans are getting screwed. Go See This Movie, you will be glad
you did, then perhaps you will also go visit Michael Moore's site www.michaelmoore.com
and find out what you can do to fix this broken system.
OK, so I don't update this every week, and sometimes not even every
month, but then if I did, I wouldn't have too much to say, or at
least that is the way it seems to me. This is a quick note to let you
know that if you play the lute, we have a terrific new book titled A
Variety of Music for Renaissance Lute There are 33 Great Pieces
which you can hear on Soundclick
I posted 6 of them, and you have to take a quick listen to Cantiga
119, but I warn you, if you listen, you will have to get this
Book/CD. It's one of my favorite collections and I'm very pleased
with both the book and recording. There is a lot of "new"
material here and for those of you who are looking for some things to
play that you don't already own, this is the collection for you. The
CD will help you learn the pieces faster, and it's a pleasure to
hear. We will also have the CD separate from the book for those who
just enjoy listening.
This is going to be a nice week. It's warming up and this is really
the reason we moved down here to North Carolina. If New York was
warm, I doubt I would have had the incentive to move. But move we
did, and at some point this week it's supposed to hit 76 F which is
not too bad for February. I just finished the book "8
Sonatas for the Guitar" by Domenico Scarlatti. These are
wonderful pieces, many which have not been transcribed for the guitar
until now. A few of them are classics you will recognize, but others
are new and they are pieces I don't believe you have heard. I am also
putting them up on soundclick and they should be there in a day or
two. There is a link to them on the link above. The recording came
out better than I thought. I always think I'm not going to be able to
do it, I guess it goes back to when I was a kid and couldn't do
anything. So I'm pleased with the recording and the book. Aleksandra
did a beautiful drawing of Scarlatti for the cover. It's nice to be
settled in and have some time to do these things. I'm thinking of
perhaps doing more in the future, these are really nice pieces.
The Flute book "Music of Spain &
South America for Flute" is now available and on our site
for sale. It's a wonderful selection of pieces and Wendy Norman gives
a great performance on the flute. These are separate tracks so you
can fade either the guitar or the flute tracks to play along. The CD
is also meant for just listening. There are no counts or clicks,
there is an introduction with the guitar for each track.
I'm working on a collection of six Scarlatti pieces. Most of them are
very playable, but there is one which I love which is quite
challenging, and as usual I feel like I will never learn it well
enough to record it. I work on it hours every day and even have it
memorized now. The point of all this is not that the piece is hard,
which it is... but just that everyone that picks up the stupid guitar
has problems, even me. So you are not alone if you get these feelings
when you are learning a tune.
Weather has been fairly pleasant here in North Carolina, nothing like
the frigid cold of upstate New York. Oh, I told you about Nero Wolfe
the other day in the Blog, and if you don't want to go out and buy
one, or go to the library, you can try one as someone has written
some on line, 3 stories, and they are very very good. I reall wish he
would continue. You can read the stories at this
link Nero Wolfe. Give them a try for a very enjoyable Read
***********
We have a new guitar book out there. 12
Rhythmic Dances for Guitar Solo. These are pieces that I have
written over the last 30 years. I love the cover art which was done
by Aleksandra Alexander. The one thing that draws them together is
the fact that each piece has a strong rhythmic syncopated feel. The
style of the pieces is quite varied, ranging from the sweet Spanish
Style Summer's Waltz to the rocking sound of Danza Ritmico No 9.
These are harder pieces that I usually write, but perhaps that is
because now I'm trying to make music more accessible without
compromising the quality of the music; and by quality I mean how
addictive the piece is, because for me that is what music is about.
But because I compose I really want more and more people to be able
to access the things that I write, unlike Liszt who only wanted
himself to be able to play his own music. That seems odd to me, sort
of like writing a book and not wanting anyone but yourself to be able
to read it. And speaking of books, if you haven't read a Nero Wolfe
Mystery, now is the time to take the plunge. Here is a link to a Nero
Wolfe data base, all the books that Rex Stout has written in
sequence. If you live near a good library, they should have most of
these books. I really can't find another writer of fiction that I
like more. If you like to read, you owe it to yourself to read about
Nero Wolfe, the Fat Detective who lives in a Brownstone on 35th
street in NY, never leaves his house on business and grows orchids on
the top floor, not to mention his Employees detective and legman,
Archie Goodwin and gourmet chef, Fritz.
Oh, back to music. One of my best pieces, the one I am probably the
happiest that I have ever written is Danza Ritmico No 10. You can
hear that, Danza 9 and others on Soundclick.
Weather here in NC is a lot different than in NY. Let me put it this
way, there are no snow blowers for sale. We saw some lawn mowers for
sale yesterday when we were out. Two weeks ago I was riding a bicycle
in 70 degree weather, today we are going to have freezing rain and
it's not going above 40 degrees. But in a day or two it will warm up.
Spring should be fun. - Allan
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